Category: Kids

It's hard to find a more perfect sentiment...

12/10/2014

This past Sunday, our elementary Sunday School class focused on the Advent theme of peace and how we could help bring peace to others. Those who need it most are often in the midst of peace's extreme opposite: war.

Our task was to create cards that would be sent to those serving in the military overseas. These cards were heartfelt and filled with cheery holiday pictures. One theme did stand out; and it will likely be as timeless as war and peace itself: Star Wars.

May the force be with you indeed! It really does seem to be the perfect wish for someone in need of peace.

Go forth and spread the force of peace!

Copyright (c) 2014, Covenant Church

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Environmental Stewardship: The View from Age 10

10/7/2014

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Covenant's tradition for our annual Children & Youth Sunday is to have our 5th graders give the proclamation. Standing up in front of a congregation and talking to them about God makes me feel queasy. Yet these 10 year olds handle the pressure with poise and a confidence I know I didn't have at 10! This year we asked our 5th graders, "How are we co-creators with God?"

One young man took this question, and his love of science, quite seriously. I wanted to share some of his thoughts. Its a lesson in environmental respect that we can all learn from.

At the Arboretum they consider fires and hurricanes an opportunity to remove some of the invasive species and give native species a chance to fill in the new growth. If there are any invasive species nearby, like in your backyard, you can help by pulling them out.

At Camp Community we learned that sometimes a healthy water system doesn’t always look clean and pure, and that Nature is a filter. That was the point of the filters we made, that pouring dirty water through grass and rocks and dirt actually made it cleaner. At first I predicted that it would make the water dirtier, but the opposite was true. We learned about how we can filter different water mixtures that had different pollutants.

I learned that cool wildfires that occur naturally can stay low in the forest. They are actually pretty good because they provide nutrients and room for other plants grow, and they don’t kill many trees. A hot wildfire-- like the ones people start accidentally-- can burn high into the canopy and spread, killing many trees, animals, and habitats. Sometimes foresters set prescribed fires on purpose or let a fire started by lightning continue to burn to help clear some of the layer of dead wood and leaves that has built up on the forest floor.

Everybody can do a part to help protect the earth. Even the little things help. If you’re doing a science project and one person completes only 20% out of a hundred, that helps! It’s better than 0% or 5%; they did their best, they did their part, and now it’s time for the other people to do their part. Protecting the earth can be hard or complicated, but whatever the cause, a true co-creator will do anything to save the earth from threatening predicaments.

No Children & Youth Sunday is complete without art from 4 year olds!

"The Earth"

A tree and VERY happy fish!

"The Sun"

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The Power of Regret

4/8/2014

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We've been rolling out a compassion program in our church for the past several weeks. As the Director of Children and Youth, I have the pleasure of introducing this concept to our kids of all ages. Starting with the K-2nd class, we acted out scenarios to play through what compassion could look like. With the 3rd-5th grade class we also acted, but I took more input from the kids in terms of what kindness and non-kindness looked and felt like.

When it came time to work with the Youth group (6th-12th graders), I had the students write a story. Not long, just a few paragraphs. I asked them to remember a situation in their past where either they wish someone had been more compassionate to them, or where they wish they had shown more compassion to another person.

I'm sure we can all think of a time that someone did something nice for us, or we acted compassionately toward another person. Those are great feelings!

But often, the scenes that stick with us, that teach us the most, are the ones tinged with regret. These memories aren't fun to think about, and can get pushed to the back of our minds.

The experiences our youth wrote about were touching and telling. These youth were able to see, with tenderness and understanding, that someone was in pain, even if they weren't sure what they could have done about it. They recognized another person reaching out to them, even if they weren't in a position to reciprocate the feeling.

It's my hope that thinking and writing about these regrets will help bring their natural compassion to the forefront. The compassion they knew should have been present has a face and a feeling. Next time they are in a situation to reach out with compassion or to accept when another is reaching out to them, it will be grasped wholeheartedly.

- Jodi, Director of Children & Youth

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Giving Kids a Way to Give

3/6/2014

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The Youth and the youthful hard at work!

As an pre-regular-church-attender adult, I struggled with how to give of myself to those in need. I wanted to. I'd look at volunteer websites, I'd make lists of ideas, but I was never able to jump in. Time, energy, know-how, these were common excuses. Now, as a Children & Youth Director, it is ironically part of my job to get people volunteering - at least the young people. And we have so many ideas for "my kids" (meaning my church kids) I'm not sure we'll ever do them all. That's a good problem to have.

It's harder to volunteer when you are trying to do it by yourself, when you are trying to navigate the throngs of opportunities to help the needy, when you just don't know where to start. If I had had experiences as a youth in a church giving my time to others I probably would not have felt so challenged as an adult. Yes, I would have still been pressed for time, who isn't, but I would have had more confidence in "jumping in."

One huge gift we can give our kids is showing them how to they can help. The more hands-on they can be in another person's life now, the more likely they will continue to do it as adults.

Several weeks ago about 17 Covenant folk volunteered in a local neighborhood to participate in a home repair blitz through Rebuilding Together. Four of those volunteers were in our youth group. And they were awesome! They worked just as hard as the adults and provided real value to our team.

Before that day I couldn't say that I had ever painted the entire exterior of a house. I couldn't say that I had worked 8 hours repairing a stranger's home. But those four kids can. And hopefully, they will remember how easy and rewarding it was...because we have big plans for them! ;)

Photos here!

Copyright (c) 2014, Covenant Church

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It's hard to find a more perfect sentiment...

Environmental Stewardship: The View from Age 10

The Power of Regret

Giving Kids a Way to Give

Covenant

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